I am sure a lot of you live in a house or apartment with coin operated washers and dryers. I just found out a way to use them without paying, so I thought I'd share:

(I copy/pasted from a site because they worded it well)

step 1: Obtain the materials

All you need for this hack are ordinary plastic coffee shop stir sticks. I find that the thinner they are the easier they are to use. Thinner can also mean that they break easier, so if you are worried about leaving evidence behind (i.e. only to have your grumpy landlord to find out), then try to find slightly thicker ones.

In the end, you will need as many stir sticks as you will need coins, so a wash of $0.50 requires 2 sticks, as long as there are two 25c slots for quarters. It is important that the sticks fit within the slots, otherwise your instructable promptly ends here.

step 2: Moment of truth
Now that you have your sticks, stare the washing machine down until all worries are pushed aside. First experiment with the metal coin inserter mechanism where you normally place coins on. When it is empty, push it in until it stops (about half way).

Hold it in position while you grab your stir sticks. Slowly pull the tray back no more than 1cm and hold it there. One at a time, insert a stir stick into each slot at a 30-35 degree angle and push it in until it fits snugly into its position. (I find that it works best when its less than 45-degrees).

Once each stick is each coin slot, push the tray in a little bit more so that it's almost all the way in, and hold it there.

This is the tricky part. You will need to gently push the sticks further into the slot, still keeping them at 30-35 degrees. At first, it may seem like they don't go in further, but with practice and some adjustments, you will find that they can ease another 0.5cm or so deeper. Do this for each stick.

step 3: Paydirt
Once you are convinced that ALL sticks are sticking out 35 degrees from the horizontal (without having to hold them), start to push the tray all the way in. If you did the previous step properly, you should be able to push it as if it has coins, meaning it should go all the way in (farther than if you had no coins on it).

The stir sticks shouldn't break, but be sure to pull the tray out quickly so that you can salvage the sticks.

Hopefully at this point the washing machine is promptly filling up with water

Hehehe, I did 4 loads of laundry today using this method, and it was really easy to do. This an awesome skill to have. :thepirate

ChemEnhanced

its also stealing.....better watch it or the police may bust your operation.

FunkyCrew

I hate you :( ours are card-operated

jennypie

This actually works. We used to do this all the time at my mom's old apartment. Heh.

kotsy

either i'm lazy or that seems like a lot of work

Ravist

quote:

Originally posted by ChemEnhanced
its also stealing.....better watch it or the police may bust your operation.

ya watch out the laundry machines have camera's installed by the government, so when you constantly use that technique they will know each and every single time you've done it, it happened to me guys don't let it happen to you. Find those cameras and deactivate them somehow without the cameras seeing you do it.

me@t k@tie

quote:

Originally posted by kotsy
either i'm lazy or that seems like a lot of work

It's a lot easier than looking everywhere for the right change. :p

jennypie

quote:

Originally posted by Ravist
ya watch out the laundry machines have camera's installed by the government, so when you constantly use that technique they will know each and every single time you've done it, it happened to me guys don't let it happen to you. Find those cameras and deactivate them somehow without the cameras seeing you do it.

Hahaha, says the paranoid schizophrenic.

kotsy

quote:

Originally posted by me@t k@tie
It's a lot easier than looking everywhere for the right change. :p

not when you have a huge bucket of change in you room ;)

Ravist

No seriously! The government is watching me everywhere, i used to be such a badboy. Now im afraid to do anything since they injected the gps tracking device inside my neck, been trying to get it out but all i've been accomplishing is making a bloody mess.

jennypie

quote:

Originally posted by Ravist
No seriously! The government is watching me everywhere, i used to be such a badboy. Now im afraid to do anything since they injected the gps tracking device inside my neck, been trying to get it out but all i've been accomplishing is making a bloody mess.